S.S. Baychimo, A real ghost ship!

“The Baychimo was obviously tougher than its captain had given it credit for, because it did indeed survive the winter, and began its ascent into the annals of sea legend. People began to report seeing the ship cruising about the cold north Atlantic waters, totally intact and seemingly unmanned. The first such sighting came when a dog sledder heading for Nome, Alaska, spotted the ship adrift near shore, and the number of sightings took off from there. The path of the Baychimo was unpredictable and erratic, with the ship sometimes being seen near shore but at other times far out to sea, and it was sighted alternately in both open water and trapped within ice, in wildly disparate locations.”

SS Baychimo – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sightings

A few days after the Baychimo had disappeared on 24 November 1931, the ship was found 45 mi (72 km) south of where she was lost, but was again ice-packed.

After several months, she was spotted again but about 300 mi (480 km) to the east.

In March of the following year, she was seen floating peacefully near the shore by Leslie Melvin, by a man traveling to Nome with his dog sled team.

November 1939, she was boarded by Captain Hugh Polson, wishing to salvage her, but the creeping ice floes intervened and the captain had to abandon her. This is the last recorded boarding of the Baychimo.[4]

After 1939, she was seen floating alone and without crew numerous times, but had always eluded capture.

March 1962, she was seen drifting along the Beaufort Sea coast by a group of Inuit.

She was found frozen in an ice pack in 1969, 38 years after she was abandoned. This is the last recorded sighting of the Baychimo.

In 2006, the Alaskan government began work on a project to solve the mystery of “the Ghost Ship of the Arctic” and locate the Baychimo, whether still afloat or on the ocean floor. She has not been found yet.